This post will be as easy as, you guessed it, 1-2-3. Three things to say. Well, actually I have a whole ton more I could go on about, but to keep your interest I will limit it to three more pressing things and save the others for a later post. Plus, it keeps ya on your toes. 😉

1) Reminders: Please continue to vote for Miss Makenzie in the contest. Yesterday, there was one child's number who was obviously getting computer generated votes. Every THREE SECONDS a vote would go into theirs and they racked up over 4000 votes in only a few hours. Who knows where it is at now?! Peter, being the computer nerd genius he is, was able to figure out exactly how they were doing this. And even though we could do the same, we don't stoop to that level. Instead, we are trying to get the word out for people to vote the honest way (aka friends, family, and social media) so if you can continue to help us out that would be great. 😀 And for the record, it does seem that the voting has been changing to keep the computer stuff from working as you actually have to click a button now instead of there being an ability to automatic refresh. Click HERE and then choose #24! Thanks! 🙂

Vote for Me!

Another reminder - enter my giveaway for Gnu Bars. Open through Friday night. 🙂

2) Prayer Requests - Last night my sister, brother, and mom were supposed to come over for dinner and to hang out so I could get some extra visiting time with my brother before he leaves in a week. Well, on the way up here they got in a wreck on one of the main highways between where I live and where they live in Atlanta. It was not a serious wreck, but the timing is just AWFUL. A car rear-ended them and while, fortunately, there is not much damage and none of them had to go to the hospital, it still worries me a lot. The main issue here is that both my mother and my sister were in car accidents less than a year ago, both of which are just now getting resolved. None of these accidents have been their fault and none of them seemed serious at the time, but as time went on a lot of issues arose. From my sister's accident a year ago, she has now lost feeling in her left foot permanently. From my mom's accident a year ago, she ended up in severe pain about a week afterwards and it was due to herniated discs in her spine. Which she had to have 3 surgeries for in the last 6 months alone. Her last post-op checkup was on Monday morning...and Tuesday night she gets whiplash again because of this THIRD accident. So, please pray that my mom's neck does not incur more serious damage from this. Please pray that any insurance issues are resolved quickly, unlike their last situation. In fact, my sister JUST got a car to replace the one that was totaled in her previous wreck not even a week ago! And that's the one that was wrecked last night. Luckily, its not totaled and only the rear bumper will need work done. I just hope this time around everything is as pain and worry free as possible for them. They have both been through so much recently, way above and beyond these accidents, and I hate to see them suffer in addition to all the other worries they have already been facing. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers. 🙂

Pic of Me with My Two Fave Ladies

3) New Fun Workout - To lighten things up a bit now, let me tell you that I am SO glad I stuck around for my workout this morning! As you know, I have not been feeling that awesome lately. Every night through the night and then in the morning my chest, nose, throat, ears, etc feel very clogged and it hurts to swallow, headachey, etc. As the day gets going and I get moving, I do feel a lot better so I have decided to keep up with workouts this week. Just taking it easy when needed. For example, Monday I went to spin and didn't push myself too hard and yesterday I rested because I had to tutor and I was in a bit more pain. Today I felt great after breakfast, so I packed up M to head to the gym, ready to kick some butt in a Group Kick class.

I go in to the group fitness room, set down my water bottle, take off my jacket, and look around to see....steps! Apparently today's class was switched to a Group STEP workout instead of Kick because the instructor was sick and the only sub was the step instructor.

What to do? Go home since I'm already not 100% and don't know if I feel up to a new workout? Or stick around since I couldn't stand the thought of getting on a cardio machine have done a good bit of step at home with my Cathe Friedrich DVDs? I figured why not give it a shot? I normally don't care for group step classes because the ones I have taken in the past are either not challenging enough or way too dancy for me to follow along well with if I haven't done the same moves numerous times (one of the only reasons I can do Cathe step...many times to try a workout without embarrassing myself in a class until I get it) 😉

I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. The Body Training Systems Group Step setup was way more athletic and it got me moving and the heart pumping really well. I don't think it's as good as Cathe, but I still loved it. And I am actually planning to now incorporate a class into my workout rotation. The more you get to know me, the more you will see that I go through phases of workout preferences. Sometimes I hate cardio and only want to lift heavy weights; sometimes I hate classes and only want to do the stepmill & elliptical; sometimes I want to workout at home more than the gym.

Right now, I am more into cardio and less emphasis on weights and I only want to do classes at the gym. For everything. My attention span for cardio and my desire to lift heavy have both gone down the pooper since my fitness competition and since they fit better with not pushing my body while trying to conceive. I have a tendency to try to kill myself with a tough workout when doing my own thing. Not bad for normal circumstances, but not good when wanting to keep my body out of physical stress. I simply want to do fun workouts and not have to think or plan everything. Enter classes. Kick, Power, Spin, and now Step as well. Plus, the motivation of others is an added bonus.  I love being open to my workouts and being able to switch things up without stressing. Gym? Home? Classes? Sole workouts? Lots of weights? Lifting lighter? All sound good to me! No plan has to be perfect. Just get your body moving any way you enjoy. That's how this whole fitness thing becomes a lifestyle anyways. 😉

Okay, so there it is. 1-2-3. Now 1-2-3 questions for YOU!

1. Do you ever switch up your typical schedule? How often? Or have you been doing the same type of routine for a long time and still enjoy it just as much?
2. Have you ever been in a wreck or had a surgery? From yesterday's post, you can read about my worst wreck. Although only 1 car was involved...and my body completed the rest of the wreck. I had two surgeries to repair my elbow from that one. No others.
3. Have YOU voted for M yet? Pretty please tell me you did! But don't lie! 😉

Well, I was planning to do this giveaway a little later in the week, but I see an opportunity and am gonna take it 😉

Remember how not too long ago I received a bunch of samples of Gnu Bars from the folks at Gnu Foods?

Gnu Foods Delivery

seven delicious flavors to try

Well, while part of the benefit of blogging is sampling some goodies for free, I still think the biggest benefit is the community and people involved. So, I always want to try to give back to you all. And giveaways of course are the best way to do that 😀

First, some interesting info about the Gnu Bars.

• Every bar provides 12g fiber, which is approximately 50% of the recommended daily value.
• They are sweetened with fruit juice and have no high fructose corn syrup.
• Aid regularity and heart health.
• They are both Kosher and Vegan friendly 🙂

Now, onto the reviews 😀 I have enjoyed these bars in various ways.

With Lunch

With my Mid-Morning Coffee Snack

In the Car while Running Errands

And even Makenzie enjoyed them a ton!

enjoying a Gnu bar

There are 7 different flavors of the Gnu bar, each with an enjoyable chewy texture and lots of flavor. Here are the flavors with a description of each.

1. Banana Walnut - I really liked this one because it tasted pretty similar to banana bread. The banana flavor wasn't overpowering, like in some of the other fruitier flavors. The texture seemed a bit chewier too, which I liked in this bar.
2. Chocolate Brownie - This one is good for those who like chocolate, but don't care for the overly sweet chocolate taste that other bars seem to have. It tasted like natural dark chocolate, not overly splenda sweetened and funny-textured chocolate I have found in other "health" bars. Not as good as the espresso one, but still very good.
3. Espresso Chip - This was one of my favorites! It paired just perfectly with a cup of coffee. I really enjoyed how there was a chocolate flavor, but the coffee/espresso flavor was stronger. In my opinion, a lot of coffee flavored products don't really taste like coffee, but this one did. Yum!
4. Lemon Ginger - I liked this flavor at first, but the more I ate the bar, the more the flavors seemed a bit too strong to me. King of like a super lemony gingersnap. I think these flavors separately would be great, or if ginger was the stronger flavor with a small undertone of lemon, but having both be so evident in the bar was a little overkill for my tongue. I did still enjoy it in small doses, though.
5. Orange Cranberry - This one is similar to the Lemon Ginger in that the flavors were a bit overwhelming. However, this one, the orange was the strongest. And too strong. If you really like orange, then you would probably like this. I am not a huge fan of oranges, so that could be why this was my least favorite bar. If the cranberry had a stronger showing in the taste, I probably would have liked it better. I do give credit to this one's texture, though. It was the best in that sense because it had chunks of cranberries mixed in with the bar and those were a treat.
6. Peanut Butter - I liked this one a lot too. The peanut butter was the perfect amount of flavor. It was a great snack and held me over well while I was out being busy.
7. Cinnamon Raisin - This one was my other favorite! It tasted like an oatmeal raisin cookie to me. It was the perfect amount of sweetness, and also had a bit more bulk to the chewy texture with some raisin chunks in it. I will probably have to get more of these!

So, now what you all are waiting for! How to enter the giveaway. I will send ONE lucky winner a package with their own sampling set of these bars - one of each of the seven flavors. You will receive one entry for each of the following.

1. Post a comment letting me know which flavor you would most like to try, or which flavor is your favorite if you already eat Gnu Bars.

2. Link back to this giveaway on your blog and leave me another comment telling me you did so. If you can include a link to your post, that would help!

3. I added this one to go along with posting this early, to help out miss M! Link the photo contest voting on your blog AND ask people to vote for Makenzie #24, plus leave another comment letting me know. The link is the following: http://www.laurabrettphotography.com/blog/2010/02/vote-atlantas-cutest-kid-alpharettaatlanta-child-family-photographer/ Yes, I know, selfish plug for miss M. But you all love her, right? Right!

So enter away! Giveaway will end at 10pm EST Friday February 23!